In contrast to his main rivals in the mayor’s race, Rahm Emanuel has told labor leaders that he favors reducing pension benefits for the city’s existing work force and not just for new hires.
Although Mr. Emanuel has not yet publicly detailed his plan to confront the city’s perennial budget deficits and the severely underfinanced employee pension funds, he told union officials in a private meeting on Dec. 15 that he thought it could be necessary to cut the pensions of all employees, said people who attended the meeting.
Mr. Emanuel made the comments while he was being interviewed by leaders of the Chicago Federation of Labor. That umbrella group for 300 unions has not yet endorsed any of the candidates who will be running in the Feb. 22 election to succeed Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is retiring.
“The sticking issue for all of us is the pension issue,” said a labor activist who attended the meeting with Mr. Emanuel. “I can’t tell my members we are going to support a guy who is going to cut your pensions.”
The labor leader and others who attended the meeting said they did not want to be identified for fear that Mr. Emanuel would retaliate if he were elected.
Mr. Emanuel plans to disclose his position on city finances in a speech sometime in February, said Ben LaBolt, his spokesman. Told of the union officials’ accounts of the endorsement session, Mr. LaBolt said, “Rahm told the truth about the financial conditions of the pension system and the crisis that it faces.”
In a statement, Mr. LaBolt added that Mr. Emanuel believed “fundamental reform” was necessary to ensure that workers would receive pension benefits when they retire.
“Rahm knows — and Chicagoans understand — that the pension system as currently constructed is not an honest system,” Mr. LaBolt said. “It’s not fair for taxpayers, and it’s not fair for city workers.”
Public employees’ retirement funds have been hit hard not only by the weak economy but also by early-retirement offers, wage increases and the Chicago Public Schools’ partial “pension holiday,” which has allowed the district to reduce its pension contributions.
A new state law will require Chicago and other cities in Illinois to contribute more money toward pensions for police officers and firefighters. Mr. Daley strenuously objected to that change, warning that it would result in the biggest property tax increase in Chicago’s history.
State lawmakers also approved changes last year that limit pension benefits and raise the retirement age for new public employees, but that legislation did not affect workers already on the payroll.
The mayoral candidates Miguel del Valle, Carol Moseley Braun and Gery Chico have said they favor a two-tier pension system with reduced benefits only for new hires.
“I just don’t think it’s right for current employees contracted under certain terms to be told, ‘No, that’s not going to happen,’.” said Mr. del Valle, the city clerk, adding that he believes doing so would violate the State Constitution.
“I can’t tell my members we are going to support a guy who is going to cut your pensions.”
So you’re going to tell them to vote for the candidate who is either going to lie to them to their face or kick the can further down the road so their children and everyone else will have to deal with even worse consequences than what we are facing now. Great.
This is hope for Chicago. If Rahm is serious about this then we can save our City from the the pension time bomb.
Ah yes. the pension time bomb. Many of these government employees don’t get social security. And now Emmanuel, the Commercial Club, Trib, Sun and all the yahoos who post in comments sections are waiting with bated breathe for public sector jobs to be degraded down to Walmart clerk jobs. There will be no middle class if the Elites, the press and the peasant comment posters get their way.
I’m getting sick and tired of hearing all the whining about the tax increase to FINALLY force the city to pay their STATE LAW MANDATED contributions. All I hear is this liberal (SLEEP WITH DALEY) media and misinformed public place the blame on the workers. Well, I have news for you geniuses.
1. We (the workers!) have always paid our share of our pension contributions!
2. This situation arose because of one reason, and ONE reason only! The THIEVING politicians failing to pay their share, that is state law mandated, into the funds. Also stealing money from the funds to pay their relatives for FAILED investments, help pay for needless parks on just about every block, concrete planters blocking every main thoroughfare in the city, a big CHROME KIDNEY, etc, etc, etc…!!!
3. So, as one of these so called over paid city workers (who just happens to run towards what most of you RUN AWAY FROM every day I work for you in this city) I am sick of hearing about how spoiled we are. Our pensions are no better than most trades in the private sector. We took this lower paying job that forced us to live in the MUCH higher cost-of-living city because of the benefits. Most of us got paid much less than comparable positions outside the city. But now that the politicians didn’t live up to their end of their financial responsibility, the media and uninformed public wants to blame us workers. Well sorry, I’m not buyin it and have NO sympathy for the tax increase. If either of you I mentioned bothered to pay attention to what YOUR elected officials were doing, instead of worrying about another pee park for “FiFi”, we wouldn’t be in this mess! If this type of financial mismanagement happened anywhere except in the “Kingdom of Richie”, federal indictments would have been filed LONG AGO!
He’s right, it’s not an honest system. The politicans have been stealing from it for years and now they want to make it look like the workers are gready. Everyone seems to think it’s a good idea to cut pensions, are they going to make similiar donations from their 401Ks?
This is why Rahm has my vote for Mayor. If he needs campaign money, he calls his brother Ari and holds a multi-million dollar fundraiser in Hollywood. Since he is unbeholden to the civil servant unions who control elections in Illinois through campaign money, he can speak the truth.
Clean up the pension timebomb that is bankrupting our city and state? Check!
Play hardball with CTU to increase instructional time for our kids? Check!
Chicago needs a grown-up Mayor who will make the hard decisions to put us back on the path of financial security, job growth and prosperity. Do we really think the other machine cronies seeking the job will do this?
That is wrong all the way around!!! How can you just change peoples pensions who have paid into them and worked for them for 10,20,30 years and just say we are going to reduce your benefits! How about the politicians I bet their pensions do not change!!! Oh yeah Rahm gets to be on the ballot even though he did not live in chicago he was living and working in D.C. but its ok to change the rules for him and lets just screw the average working guy who goes to work everyday! The pensions that the Police and Fire get will not make them rich they are not nearly enough for all the holidays they are not home with families or all the evenings missed with their loved ones when they are at work trying to make chicago a safe place to live for all who live in the city!!! The pension is definatley no where near what it needs to be when a police officer or fire fighter dies trying to do their job and then Rahm thinks he should just cut everyones pensions WRONG! Hey here is an idea lets cut all the politicians pensions in 1/2 and see how that works they are the ones that are putting a drain on the city with the insane benfits that they recieve for never having to lay there life on the line. Remember Mr. Rahm it is the Police and Firemen that make this city as sfe as they can!!!! I for one will tell all my familiy and friends not to vote for someone so insensitive as Rahm Emanual!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I couldn’t have said it any better than phender (above) has. That’s classic politics for you — I’ll get mine, and everyone else (including my children’s generation) can get lost.
I’ve been skeptical of Rahm since before he announced his candidacy, but if he’s willing to make bold, honest, responsible stands like this, he’ll get my vote.
Let’s be honest here, it’s not the actua “workers” pensions causing all the problems. These politicians have been raping the aystem for decadea and now they want us the tax payers to fix it. These aldercreatures in the city have stolen this city from its citizens. Rahm you wanna fix the pension system in the city start with the waste in city hall.
typical. as usual, you wouldn’t publish the truth!
I love people that know and understand very little about the “pension time-bomb” and then post comments. Ask Rahm or Mayor Daley how many gov. pensions they will collect when they retire and exactly how much money they will be worth….But hey lets keep going after the police and fire and the middle class….the working class. Ask Mayor Daley why in fact he used police and fire pensions as his personal check account to build mill park and meigs field. Thanks maybe i can retire there!
I should disclose: I have a pension. My brother has a pension, and so does my mother. We all take pride in our work and work very hard on behalf of the people we serve. We are not just putting in time for a check and benefits.
You won’t get any disagreement from me that the city has lied to us and stolen from us.
However, my main focus right now is keeping my job, and jobs of my family members. Needless to say this is a horrible job market to look for work in, especially for my mother.
I also don’t want more tax increases like the one we just had in the future. Property taxes are killing us as it is.
I fear if we don’t take some cuts in pensions now, we will see more job cuts, more workers kicked out of unions to save money, more big tax increases, AND bigger cuts to pensions.
So I will take my lumps and get behind the candidate I think is being most honest about the situation, with one caveat: the politicians need to take bigger cuts!
But why should you take your lumps and rahm and his cronies are not taking theirs? In reality, how many pensions doe rahm have coming..Why wont he cut his and all the others at city hall..Why dont he make Burke pay back all the money for those guards..oops chaufuer he had for 20= years.
We do not get Social Security. I do not qualify for any SS benefits, as the City is my sole employer. What am I supposed to live on in retirement? Are any of YOU going to give me a monthly stipend from your SS check? I didn’t think so. I need my pension to live.
On $1M you’ll live quite well. In 10 years, there probably won’t be an Social Security. So where does that leave the rest of us??
Just how many pensions do the candidates for mayor get themselves. How many double-dippers are asking for us to tighten our belts ?
lets fill rahms pockets with even more money!
the economy cannot support rahm’s pension either.. he should lead by example and cut his pension and every other politicians pension. detriot has the worst economy and their not cutting pensions.. hmm. maybe city workers should move to another city where they dont use the economy as a rhetorical cash grabbing opportunity. where does that money go to anyway? schools, roads, or other peoples pockets.. please. lets open the citys books and see how much money the city really has. there’s a reason why the books werent opened in 2008. and any money the city has gets abscounded anyway
Mike….You are 100% correct..lets see the coward media in this town start digging through all the no-show jobs at city hall..37 Deputy Commissioners in most departments..total waste and fraud..but no one will look into it..mobsters kids running rampant on the city payroll.
Hey Rahm! Don’t you get a pension for being in a government job for only a “FEW” years? If you want to mess with employee pensions then I STRONGLY suggest that you give up YOUR PENSION! Why should city employees have their pensions be cut in half or whatever your plan to do to it is? My father gave 33 years of service as a police officer and when he passed away my mother got 50% of his pension or in a dollar amount about $1500 per month. Did you know this Rahm…..that when a policeman dies after he retires the widow gets half the amount of his pension? Now you come in and THINK that you are the MAYOR already and plan do cut employee pensions! How much are you willing to make widows sacrifice more than they have now? If you want to cut spending in government then why don’t you try starting at the top instead of at the “workers” level? Here’s one idea…….cut the number of alderman in half!! New York City has less aldermen or councilmen than we do and they are a larger city! I have NEVER SEEN any alderman run into a burning building to save another human’s life at 3 a.m. on a cold bitter night or seen any alderman stop and chase a suspect with a gun down some dark alley! Have you seen any of them do these things? Each alderman make over $100k per year PLUS they get a STIPEND of $70k or $75k to use as an expense account. This is a part time job…..being an alderman. Has anyone called their alderman and didn’t get an answer from the office of the alderman? I have called my alderman 3 seperate occassions and haven’t been able to reach them! When I did leave a message on their voice mail I NEVER got a phone call back! How much money would the city save if 25 alderman jobs were cut and NONE of the alderman got that “EXTRA” stipend for office expenses? I’ve had enough of the politics as usual in this city and your comments also Rahm. If you do get elected and you try to cut the pensions of city employees, these employees should ALL GO ON STRIKE! What’s that you say? They can’t do that because the have a “NO STRIKE” clause in their contract? Well, the CITY has a CONTRACT to the employees to PAY THEIR SHARE OF PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS!!! But I guess you don”t care about that Rahm…..you just want to become the next mayor and do things your way. I vote NO to Rahm and I’ll tell as many people as I can to do the same! Rahm, you and many other politicians have seem to have forgotten something very important! We, the PEOPLE, tell YOU what WE WANT and it’s NOT the OTHER WAY AROUND!!!!
All you basher, just one question. How would you feel if it was you? One other question. The great political figures seem to want to whack everyones pension, how come nobody is talking about whacking theirs? Most of them are recieving multiple pensions, is this fair? Why isnt Rahm taking a pay cut? How come he hired 2 peole who respectivly were scorned for there work in other stated, and paid them so much money? OUR MONEY. I just dont understand why nobody questions these idiots who talk a big talk but he wont get rid of Ed Burkes body guards we ve been paying for for 20 = years. The employees are not the problem, it the politician and there stealing of tax payers dollars.
Cite. What city workers don’t receive Social Security at retirement?
For one Police officers and firefighters. We don’t pay into social security and don’t collect social security.